Alphabet Inc. $GOOG Shares Acquired by Prudential Financial Inc.

Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,949,156 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 133,607 shares during the quarter. Alphabet makes up about 1.1% of Prudential Financial Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $877,931,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of GOOG. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its holdings in Alphabet by 580,897.4% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 135,087,705 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $23,963,208,000 after purchasing an additional 135,064,454 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet in the 1st quarter worth about $2,622,943,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Alphabet by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 411,570,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,299,725,000 after buying an additional 9,687,855 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Alphabet by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 102,232,997 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $15,971,861,000 after buying an additional 9,243,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in Alphabet during the first quarter worth about $369,713,000. Institutional investors own 27.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.06, for a total value of $168,036.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,516 shares in the company, valued at $1,264,750.96. This trade represents a 11.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Amie Thuener O’toole sold 2,778 shares of Alphabet stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $288.26, for a total value of $800,786.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 11,739 shares in the company, valued at $3,383,884.14. This represents a 19.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 227,952 shares of company stock valued at $58,896,009. 12.99% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GOOG. Wolfe Research lifted their target price on Alphabet from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Mizuho set a $325.00 price objective on Alphabet in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Pivotal Research upped their price objective on Alphabet from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Loop Capital upgraded Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Alphabet from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.81.

Alphabet Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ GOOG opened at $299.65 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a twelve month low of $142.66 and a twelve month high of $306.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $262.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $214.24. The company has a market capitalization of $3.62 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.55, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.05.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The information services provider reported $2.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.29 by $0.58. Alphabet had a net margin of 32.23% and a return on equity of 36.08%. The company had revenue of $102.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.90 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 15.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Alphabet Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 8th will be given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 8th. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is 8.28%.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc offers various products and platforms in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets segments. The Google Services segment provides products and services, including ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, Search, and YouTube.